Baffies' Easy Munro Guide Volume 1 by Ralph Storer

Southern Highlands

Most people with any interest at all in
Scottish mountains over
the past couple of decades will have come across the books of Ralph Storer. He
has an admirable ability to reinterpret and reinvent our mountains for each
successive generation of walkers, and many of us have cut our
Munro-bagging teeth on the
back of Ralph Storer's guides and, thanks to him, discovered many of the wilder
corners of the best small country in the world that might otherwise have
remained unknown to us.

In recent years he has been perhaps best known for his series of
area guides which together make up "The Ultimate Guide to the Munros". So what,
exactly, is "Baffies' Easy Munro Guide?" Baffies is the Entertainments Convenor
of the Go-Take-A-Hike Mountaineering Club, a man who is allergic to exertion,
prone to lassitude, suffers from altitude sickness above 600m, blisters easily
and bleeds readily. This first guide in what will become a series covers the
area traditionally known in guides to Scottish mountains as the Southern
Highlands, and describes in detail easy walking routes up over 25 Munros. The
author assures readers that the routes chosen require no rock climbing, no
scrambling, no tightrope walking, no technical expertise whatsoever: simply the
ability to put one foot in front of the other...and repeat.

But while the premise of the book has a humorous side, and while it
is easy to see that Ralph Storer really enjoyed writing as Baffies (which comes
from the Scots for "slippers"), what you find within the covers of this slim
volume is a truly outstanding guide book. Each walk is well mapped, and the
descriptions and excellent colour photographs mesh together to provide clear
and easy to follow guidance. There are also the obligatory sections on subjects
such as access, weather and safety.

In embarking on his series of Baffies' guides, Ralph Storer has in
many ways come full circle. This reviewer's first encounters with Scottish
mountains were guided by a 1991 reprint of a book by Ralph Storer first
published in 1987. It is arguable that an important market for Baffies' guides
comprises people like me: whose advancing years and receding fitness mean that
the scale of challenges have to be measured. These guides will also, however,
prove ideal for those just starting out in the hills, and those walking with
families who want the assurance they will not come face to face with an "airy"
ridge at some point in their day.